Monday, August 4, 2014

Blooo* (for Bloom, etc.)

Summer is the time for algae blooms in Lake Erie, and this year is no exception. Over the weekend, the authorities in Toledo, Ohio declared a state of emergency, advising people not to drink, cook with, or bathe in the city's water. As reported in the Toledo Blade, the culprit is microcystin, a toxin that is harmful to humans and other animals. Over 500,000 residents in the Toledo area alone rely on the lake for their supply, and as you can imagine, there was a run on bottled water at local retailers. Stores as far as a hundred miles away are sold out, and the National Guard has been busy distributing this precious commodity. But all sense of humor has not been lost—the Blade has been using Twitter hashtag #emptyGlassCity for its reporting on the crisis.While the typo Blooo* is not exactly toxic to library catalogs, it nevertheless affects their health. There were 4 instances in the OhioLINK database and 133 in WorldCat.